O’Hagan distinguished himself as a scrambler, rushing for a total of 63 yards in the game.

Harvard also led by wide margin in another category—penalties. The Crimson was flagged 13 times for 110 yards. An importune few were a late-hit call on junior linebacker Matt Thomas that gave up critical yardage in the red-zone and a facemask penalty that pushed sophomore kicker Matt Schindel’s point-after back and led to a miss, his first in the last 21 attempts dating back to 2004.

When the offense dragged in most of the game, the team fell back on its defense, which held up despite a thin secondary. The pass rush kept O’Neil from finding his rhythm, with the notable exception of a third-quarter drive in which he completed seven consecutive passes for 53 total yards.

The Holy Cross offense relied heavily on one man, tailback Steve Silva, whom Harvard effectively contained. Silva rushed for only 37 net yards on 16 carries, with one touchdown. He was a return threat nevertheless, with 69 yards on three kickoff returns.

Harvard recovered a Holy Cross fumble on the Crimson’s seven-yard line, ending a dangerous drive, although the Crimson’s own offense couldn’t convert the opportunity into a score.

The defense squelched late-game comeback attempts as well, as captain defensive end Erik Grimm crushed Silva two yards behind the line of scrimmage on third-and-one on the Crimson’s 35, and the secondary shut down four pass attempts to terminate the Crusaders’ final drive before it started.

Two freshmen, cornerback Andrew Berry and linebacker Eric Schultz, posted the best numbers of the defense with Berry breaking up three passes and Schultz notching two tackles-for-loss and a sack.

—Staff writer Samuel C. Scott can be reached at sscott@fas.harvard.edu.